Havana - Residents and tourists in a town in western Cuba saw a flare pass through the sky and heard an explosion Friday in what officials said was a meteorite strike. Witnesses reported seeing a ball of fire and a smoke trail in a clear midday sky, and a rain of black stones fell on the tourist town of Vinales and other parts of Pinar del Rio province. Explosions were also heard and a smoke...

Orlando, FL - An officer from the Transportation Security Administration jumped to his death from a balcony inside Florida's busiest airport Saturday, creating panic that brought some security checkpoints to a halt for hours and caused serious delays. Panicked passengers rushed past checkpoints leading to about half of the gates at Orlando International Airport after the man jumped, resulting...

Brooklyn, NY - The federal Bureau of Prisons said Saturday that work to restore power to a detention center in New York City where inmates have gone without heat and electricity for a week will be completed by Monday. But a congresswoman who visited the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for the second time on Saturday said officials are not taking the situation seriously...

Washington - Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren has apologized to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test in a widely criticized effort to prove her claims to Native American ancestry, the tribe said on Friday. Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, called Bill John Baker, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, on Thursday to apologize for taking the DNA test last...

Washington - Senate investigators have evidence revealing the identities behind mysterious phone calls that Donald Trump Jr. had with blocked numbers during the 2016 presidential campaign, just days before he met with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Democrats have speculated that Trump Jr. was talking to his father, who has denied knowing anything about...

Milan - Thousands of vehicles were stuck in long queues caused by heavy snow on Italy's A22 motorway on Saturday, and firefighters rescued 200 people who had been trapped for hours in cars and buses. Queues on the route connecting northeastern regions to Austria reached 16 km (9.94 miles), said a spokesperson for the firefighters of the autonomous province of Bolzano. He added it was hard...

Queens, NY - Seasons, the kosher supermarket chain that declared bankruptcy last year, has new owners and is reopening one of its closed locations. The bankruptcy filing in September was big news because Seasons, founded in New York City’s Queens borough in 2011, had national ambitions. In addition to stores across the city, Seasons had opened a location in Maryland and was on the verge of...

Moscow - Following in the footsteps of the U.S., Russia will abandon a centerpiece nuclear arms treaty but will only deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles if Washington does so, President Vladimir Putin said Saturday. President Donald Trump accused Moscow on Friday of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with "impunity" by deploying banned missiles. Trump said in a...

Detroit - A Detroit-area historical group is protesting a mayor's decision to stop it from sending out the latest issue of its publication, which delves into Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford's anti-Semitism. Officials with the Dearborn Historical Commission say the latest edition of The Dearborn Historian, a city-financed quarterly journal, should be sent to its roughly 200 subscribers and...

Washington - President Donald Trump is weighing in on the racist photo that appeared in the medical college yearbook of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. In a tweet Saturday night, Trump refers to Northam and the photo showing a person in blackface and a person in Ku Klux Klan regalia. Trump ties the governor's statement denying he is in the photo to what Trump calls Northam's "horrible statement"...

Brooklyn, NY - The suspect in a fatal hammer attack last month at a Chinese restaurant in New York City was arraigned Friday from a psychiatric ward on murder and hate crime charges. Arthur Martunovich, 34, was ordered held without bail. He has been hospitalized since his arrest in the wake of the Jan. 15 dinnertime ambush that killed three men at Seaport Buffet in the Sheepshead Bay...

Tehran - Iran displayed a new cruise missile with a range of 1,300 km (800 miles) on Saturday during celebrations marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, state television reported. Iran has expanded its missile program, particularly its ballistic missiles, in defiance of opposition from the United States and expressions of concern by European countries. Tehran says the program...

Richmondm VA - Virginia Governor Ralph Northam on Saturday resisted mounting pressure from his Democratic party that he resign, denying that he appeared in a racist yearbook photo while admitting he once wore blackface in a dance contest. Northam, who took office a year ago, said he would stay in his job. "As long as I feel that I can lead, I will continue to do that," he said. Northam had...

Punxsutawney, PA - It may be hard to believe as a large swath of the U.S. thaws out from a bitter polar vortex, but spring is coming early, according to handlers for some of the country's most famous prognosticating groundhogs. Just before 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Punxsutawney (puhnk-suh-TAW'-nee) Phil emerged from his burrow in Pennsylvania at sunrise and didn't see his shadow. Nearly the same...

United Nations - The U.N. says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hopes an agreement can be reached to protect Palestinians in the West Bank after Israel said it would suspend the mandate of an international observation mission. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement Saturday that Guterres was "grateful" to the five countries that contributed to conflict prevention and the...